Case Digest: EVANGELINE A. LEONIN and PEPITO A. LEONIN v. COURT OF APPEALS and GERMAINE P. LEONIN

EVANGELINE A. LEONIN and PEPITO A. LEONIN v. COURT OF APPEALS and GERMAINE P. LEONIN

503 SCRA 595 (2006)

Occupants of a property by tolerance of the owner becomes deforciant occupants upon their failure to heed to the owner’s demand to vacate.

Prospero Leonin and his co-owners allowed his siblings, Evangelime and Pepito Leonil to occupy Apartment C without paying any rentals. The owners of the property mortgaged it with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to secure a loan in the amount of Forty Eight Thousand Pesos (P48,000.00). They however failed to settle the said loan. As a consequence thereof, GSIS foreclosed the mortgage and the property was sold at public auction to GSIS.

Prospero‘s brother, Teofilo Leonin (Teofilo), redeemed the property, upon which GSIS executed a Release of Mortgage and turned over to him the owner‘s duplicate title. Teofilo later sold the property by Deed of Absolute Sale to his daughter, herein respondent Germaine Leonin, for Forty Eight Thousand Pesos (P48,000.00). A new Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) No. 95939 was issued in her favor.

After her father Teofilo‘s death, Germaine sent a letter to her father‘s siblings-herein petitioners asking them to vacate Apartment C as their occupation thereof was by mere tolerance and, at any rate, requiring them to execute a contract of lease with her. This demand remained unheeded.

ISSUE:

Whether respondent had the right to possess the property upon the execution of a deed of absolute sale and the issuance of a transfer of certificate of title in her favor

HELD:

Respecting the issue of whether germane has the right to possess the property upon the execution of a deed of absolute sale and the issuance of a transfer of certificate of title in her favor, the same must be resolved in the affirmative. It bears noting that Evangeline‘s and Pepito‘s occupation of the property was on the mere tolerance of the former owners. Hence, when they failed to heed Germaine’s demand to vacate, they had become deforciant occupants.

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